Better than this
by SpIkExNxAnDrEwS GuRl
Summary: What if Dawn had died, as originally planned, instead of Buffy, and the world didn't end? How would this reflect on Buffy and Spike's relationship?


Title: Better than This  
Summary: What if Dawn had died, as originally planned, instead of Buffy, and the world didn't end? How would this reflect on Buffy and Spike's relationship?  
Disclaimer: Me no own.  
Chapter one:  
The stakes were high and terror was amiss.   
" Just one drop of blood," Glory hissed as she stared at scared little Dawn.  
Dawn's eyes shuttered against the harsh winds that blew against her. She watched as her own blood was decieving her, slowly dripping off her plush skin, and making its way as the key too hell.  
" Come on!" Glory yelled, " Will you drop already,"   
Glory clutched her hands together tightly as she savored every moment of this torture. But, soon she felt a little woosy, and upset. She wasn't as happy as she thought she would be. She rolled her eyes, now well aware that this feeling of guilt was only due to her other half, Ben. She shook voilently until her complex, female profile, formed into the male one.  
' I should stop this,' He thought to himself. ' This isn't right. If Glory does succeed in opening her gate to hell, I will be nothing and this innocent girl will die. But, if I kill Dawn, I will get to live.'  
Ben smiled mischeviously as he inched in closer to his the innocent key which lay before his eyes. Grabbing her arm, he slit an approxomite one inch cut on her arm. He smiled weakly, and guiltily, as the blood poured down her arm. Dawn looked at Buffy for help and reassurance that it would all be okay, but deep down inside, Dawn knew it was over. She knew that no matter what, Buffy couldn't do anything, for her blood was only inches away from opening the portal to hell.  
There it went, the blood of the key. The blood of the gate to hell. The blood of an innocent child, who did not choose this path. The blood of a child, loosing her life to an unknown demension.   
As the blood hit, a fragerant light scattered about. It seemed to draw in everything in sight. Just as soon as it appeared, it disappeared. Buffy gasped as she saw the body of her sister laying upon the tower.   
She ran passed everyone, pushing everything and anything that stood in her way. She had no times for games right now. Once she arrived at the top of the tower, she saw her beloved sister, burrowed in cirlce, on the wooden floor. Buffy rushed to her, shook her, many times, only to realize that it was over. It was done.   
Tears streaming down her face, Buffy looked up at the sky and screamed! She screamed as loud as she possibly could. " Why!!!" She called. " Why couldn't you just let her live!!!"  
Suddenly it struck Buffy. Dawn died, and the world went on. " Th-th-that's what it meant, the key. She was the key, if she could survive it. But now she was just an innocent girl, my sister." She cradled or coprtic sister closely. Nothing would ever be the same. Not friends, not family, not anything.   
Giles looked up to the tower and removed his glasses, rubbing them gently with his auborn shirt. Before re-assessing them, he wiped the on going tears that spread from his weary eyes. He could not believe that Dawn was gone. He was too caught up in his sorrows to even wonder why he was still standing.   
Xander cradled his beloved Anya in his hands, as hers were around him. Anya looked up at her love sympethetically and questioningly. " What is this-this feeling I feel?" Anya asked. Xander's responce was a looking motioning, ' HUh?' " I feel like I have only one time before. It was when Joyce slept, for a long time, and still is. Is Dawn going to wake up? Because I feel guilty and sorrowful. I feel like, I feel like for once in my life, that his shouldn't have happened, that she should not be surrendered to sleep like this." She explained.   
Xander's trembling hand, carressed Anya's face. " Sweetie, they're not sleeping," He tried to explain. She shared the same look he had before. " What do you mean?" She questioned. Xander was afraid how to word this without being to deep, but there was no other way to except to be straight forward. " They're dead, Anya. As in they're not coming back." Tears not swiftly fell from Anya's gently blue eyes.  
Tara and Willow were crying. Crying for Dawn's death, pain. Crying for Buffy's loss, sorrow. Crying for not the end of the world, bliss?  
They all knew nothing would be the same. Just the thought of this, made them shutter and wonder how they could ever go on...  
If I leave here tomorrow  
would you still remember me  
Well, I must be traveling on, now  
There's too many places I've got to see  
And if I stay here with you, girl  
Things just couldn't be the same  
'Cos I'm as free as a bird now...  
- Anthony Stewart Head 


End file.
